Water Stained with Manganese - Is it Safe to Try to Filter This Out?

[HotTubLife]

In pursuit of water that doesn't foam anymore, I elected to drain and refill my spa. During the process of refilling, the local water authority decided to flush the lines to remove build-up of something or other (no idea what). When I checked to see how close to full the spa was, what I saw looked as though the Mississippi had been used to fill the spa - it was horribly stained with boatloads (or tub-loads!) of manganese. I can't tell if I should drain it all out and refill again, or simply run the jets for an hour or so. Because of impending dark and very cold temps, I had to leave the water in the tub overnight. It is now mostly clear, but I am a bit concerned that my brand new filters just got ruined. Anyone have any advice about this? I'd love to get this resolved.

[bud16415]

I would clean the filters right away and see how it goes.

Over the years our water authority takes water from a river that runs thru town. They do a good job of cleaning it up, but we have found never to fill the tub right after a hard rain for a week. The water normally has a beautiful bluish tint in our white tub but after a rain it has a greenish tint. Even though it goes away in a few days I just don’t like it.

There is nothing you can do at this point except clean the filters and see what happens IMO.   

[HotTubLife]

Thanks. Appreciate the informed opinion.

I have a set of back up filters ready to go. I'm running the clean cycle for a bit and then will swap in the new (old, but clean) filters. Fingers crossed that I can get this cleared out. What a PITA!

[bud16415]

If they don’t get clean you could try the dishwasher. Just don’t let them go thru the heated dry. 

[HotTubLife]

Yes. I've got the dishwasher trick *down* at this point. I think that with a set of back-up filters, I can easily swap out and clean the filters monthly, as a responsible owner ought probably to do. The dishwasher trick makes this SO much less daunting a task.